Byron
Tiller is a
down and out author who has immense difficulties getting his books published due
to his sophisticated material. He lives a basically loving and simple life with
his wife Dena (Juliana Margulies ER, Ghost Ship) who sticks by him,
until he's confronted by a mysterious businessman named Luther Fox (rocker Mick
Jagger), who offers him a position as a male escort for his company "Elysian
Fields". He soon begins to bond with his client and grows close to her husband,
author Tobias Allcott (James Coburn Monsters, Inc., Our man Flint)
who takes him under his wing, but he'll soon learn the profession is not all it
seems.

The film is a very grim and depressing view into the
life of a man who feels motivated to get published but is ultimately thought of
as terrible. Despite it all, he doesn't have success as a writer but success at
home with his loving wife Dena and their son. I was really interested to see how
the story would develop as he so desperately clings onto a dream that is slowly
fading away. He has great chemistry with Margulies who tends to really display
her acting abilities as she plays off Garcia's desperation. Their scenes are
probably best in the film, and is truly touching.

Which makes it harder to watch
the character Tiller as he looks for work and a source of money. Garcia manages
to convey his desperation and frustration to the audience well, as we witness
that he has no other option making money except to work as a male escort. The
film has a very deep and profound irony as we watch these male escorts
accompanying these lonely women on dates.

One character even laughs off the fact
that the women seem to get more emotionally involved in the dates than the
actual escorts, yet in the film, the two main focuses of the story seem to get
in too deep with the women including Luther who proposes only to be met with a
mocking laughter, and Tiller who helps Allcott write the book only to be snubbed
viciously. In the end the message is, they're just hookers who dress well, and
their future is a rather bleak and meaningless one. James Coburn gives a great
performance as a dying author Allcott who pretty much manages to steal the
entire movie along with Margulies.

Writer
Phillip Jayson Lasker manages to create a story that becomes incredibly hard to
buy. The movie begins as a realistic portrayal of an artist struggling to
support his family and manages to sedge way off into a complete far-fetched
story that tends to completely contradict the characters given to us in the
opener of the movie. I found it hard to believe and buy that Garcia's character,
who was so stricken with grief and guilt in the beginning managed to so easily
bond with his first client, ever.

He takes a job as a male escort yet is hardly
ever seen with other woman clients except for one. The problem with this story twist is that
Andrea (Olivia Williams Below), whom is married to Tobias, is a
bland character from the beginning. There's nothing even remotely interesting in
her personality and seems pretty easy going throughout a majority of the film as
the "emotionally torturing" ordeal she seems to be experiencing with her aging
husband wanders on. As Garcia's character becomes engrossed in her, for some
reason, the two bond and so does Tobias with with Tiller, which becomes very
far-fetched that he would bond with someone who is sleeping with his wife.

At times, it was hard to understand why Tiller became
less and less guilty about sleeping with other women, when he had such a
beautiful wife at home. He never seems even sorry for what he committed and
rarely does he ever apologize. He also makes up seemingly paper thin stories
which he tells his wife as an excuse to leave for the night, and it becomes hard
for the audience to believe that she would buy his excuses in the first place.
Mick Jagger who has a small role in the film, seems to be in movie as a filler
and often, the writer completely contradicts his personality to the point where
we wonder what his purpose in the film is.

At first he comes off as a sly and
tempting persona, serving as the narrator, overlooking the story, then, for some
unknown reason, has a complete change of heart and we get a glimpse into his
character that just seems tacked on to the story awkwardly. The story starts
with a very grim and depressing tone, then quickly jumps into a more annoying
poignant tale, and once again back into the grim. In the end, many of the great
actors are wasted including Margulies, and Angelica Houston who has a thankless
role in the film and the movie is wracked in irony and sadness, that it soon
becomes hard to figure why.

This is
a very grim and contradictory film with an often skewed plot, wasted characters,
and actors, though has a heart and incredible irony.